By George L. Cook III African American Reports
Many of you may that know that I, George Cook have been a member of my local board of education since 2009. I like to share a motivational message about education every year and this year's message is directed toward parents who are the most important element in their child's education. I want to stress that stressing the value of education is more than asking your child if their homework is done. Hear more on my thoughts below:
New book, Spare the Kids: Why Whupping Children Won't Save Black America by Stacey Patton
A challenge to the cultural tradition of corporal punishment in Black homes and its connections to racial violence in America
Why do so many African Americans have such a special attachment to whupping children? Studies show that nearly 80 percent of black parents see spanking, popping, pinching, and beating as reasonable, effective ways to teach respect and to protect black children from the streets, incarceration, encounters with racism, or worse. However, the consequences of this widely accepted approach to child-rearing are far-reaching and seldom discussed. Dr. Stacey Patton’s extensive research suggests that corporal punishment is a crucial factor in explaining why black folks are subject to disproportionately higher rates of school suspensions and expulsions, criminal prosecutions, improper mental health diagnoses, child abuse cases, and foster care placements, which too often funnel abused and traumatized children into the prison system.
Weaving together race, religion, history, popular culture, science, policing, psychology, and personal testimonies, Dr. Patton connects what happens at home to what happens in the streets in a way that is thought-provoking, unforgettable, and deeply sobering. Spare the Kids is not just a book. It is part of a growing national movement to provide positive, nonviolent discipline practices to those rearing, teaching, and caring for children of color.
PAPERBACK------ KINDLE VERSION
In light of the Adrian Peterson media frenzy I need to put this out there. BLACK PEOPLE ARE NOT RUNNING AROUND BEATING THE HELL OUT OF THEIR KIDS!
If you have been watching TV in the last few days you may have heard Chris Carter, Charles Barkley, and others say that black parents beat their kids when it comes to discipline. Barkley went so far as to say that all black parents in his neighborhood would have been arrested today for what they did when he was growing up. Many black talking heads said that was how they were brought up. That leaves the impression that's how all black people discipline their kids and that children were constantly beaten every other day. Neither impression is true.
I like many children didn't get as many beatings as I think I did and normally I earned that rare ass whuppin. It should also be mentioned that normally being beaten was a last resort and usually only happened after a display of blatant disrespect or if mom or dad had to leave work to come to school because of some foolishness you got into. It also needs to be mentioned that a talk normally followed the beating (the talk during the beating doesn't count), a talk about why you shouldn't have done whatever it was you did. Our parents never enjoyed beating us but that was how they taught us a lesson. You can argue about whether it was the best way but it worked.
Here's an example. When I was about eight I stole another little boys bottle of YooHoo. I of course got caught and my mother had to come to school. She beat me when we got home and then when my father got off from work he beat me. (Although I'm not sure if was more mad at me stealing or having to hear more mother yelling the moment he walked in the house.). After that I have never even thought of stealing agian, Hell, I haven't had a YooHoo since.
Now it's 2014 and I have a child. My wife and I don't beat our child. I would like to think that I am more enlightened than my parents but then again I have a little girl and could never picture spanking her. My wife was a spoiled little brat as a child and was never spanked so she doesn't believe in it at all.
We and many other black parents now use different methods when it comes to discipline. Times change and black parents are right there with everyone else when it comes to discipline. Oh and one last thing. Beating your child is not a black thing.
George Cook AfricanAmericanReports.com
NFL star Adrian Peterson being charged with child abuse after beating his son with a switch has again raised the issue of child discipline. I like many my age grew up in the 70s and 80s where beating was a way of discipline. It's what our parents knew and did. I was spanked with a belt, the switch you had to go get yourself ( ..don't bring back no little switch either), and a damned Hot Wheels track, you remember the orange one. I don't believe at all that my parents beat me. As a matter of fact 99.8% of the time I had earned that ass whipping and it taught me right from wrong. Let me say I wasn't just beaten, there were talks and lessons that accompanied those beatings. But then again that was in the 70s.
Now most in society are against beating a child and like my wife and I don't beat their children. In the Black Community there are still a good number of old school parents and grandparents who believe in spankings. They follow the spare the rod and spoil the child rule. The problem now is that what many consider discipline many more consider abuse. Is spanking a child abuse?
